The Pennsylvania State University seeks candidates for the position of Dean, College of the Liberal Arts. Penn State is the land-grant University of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with the University Park campus as its administrative hub, 23 other campuses located throughout the state, and its online World Campus. Reporting directly to the Executive Vice President and Provost of the University, the Dean serves as the principal academic and administrative officer of the College. The Dean holds the Susan Welch Dean’s Chair and is known as the Susan Welch Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts. The Dean’s Chair was named in honor of Dean Welch with an endowment gift of $5 million in 2010.

The position requires a distinguished scholar and strong proponent of the liberal arts. The new dean will work aggressively to advance the College’s position as a leader among institutions of higher education in the creation and dissemination of knowledge for increasingly diverse and global constituencies. The successful candidate will be able to lead and manage the College in a multi-disciplinary and highly inter-disciplinary research university. Prior leadership experience with responsibility for strategic management of personnel, programs, communication, and resources is required, along with an ability to inspire students to expand their knowledge and understand their impact in a multicultural, global society. In addition, the successful candidate should be a visionary leader; have a commitment to high-quality disciplinary and interdisciplinary education, as well as diversity and inclusion; a record of accomplishment in research, teaching, and fundraising; and familiarity with national issues affecting undergraduate and graduate education, with credentials appropriate for a tenured appointment at the rank of professor. Salary will be commensurate with experience and qualifications.

The College of the Liberal Arts, founded in 1909, has approximately 6,000 undergraduate and 850 graduate students enrolled in residence, and an additional 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in online certificate and degree programs delivered through the Penn State World Campus. The College’s faculty teach about 30 percent of all undergraduate credit hours at University Park and a higher percentage in the World Campus. The College has more than 700 full-time faculty members, about half of whom are on the tenure track, including many who are recognized leaders in their fields. Departments in the College span the humanities, social sciences, and the life sciences and many of the departments are among the top 10 of their peers in the last National Research Council rankings. Several interdisciplinary research centers and institutes, within the College and across the University, enhance the College’s teaching, research, and outreach missions. College centers support research ranging from ethics to cognitive neuroscience, from the Civil War to human evolution, and from the bilingual brain to counterterrorism.

The 2017-18 operating budget for the College is approximately $102 million, with the World Campus generating significant additional income. In 2016-17, the College had about $30 million in research expenditures. The College has an endowment of approximately $130 million with more than 600 active funds, and an annual fundraising commitment that averages $15 million per year.

To apply for this position, send (cover letter, curriculum vitae, and contact information of four references) via the University’s employment web site at https://psu.jobs/job/76213. Please send any questions to the Chair of the Dean, Liberal Arts Search Committee at PSUSearch@psu.edu. The Search Committee will review applications and nominations beginning February 1, 2018, and will continue to receive them until the position is filled. For more information about the College of the Liberal Arts, visit our web site at http://www.la.psu.edu/.

Employment will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies. Final candidate(s) for the position will be required to complete a full background check process, including education, employment, credit, motor vehicle verifications, criminal, and child abuse as appropriate.

Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to minorities, women, veterans, disabled individuals, and members of other protected groups.

Would you like to learn Italian in Italy? Join us for the first info session for our Reggio Calabria study abroad program. The event is open to all interested students and will take place on Thursday, November 2 at 6pm in 104 Thomas.

On November 3rd please join us for a talk by Micol Seigel (Indiana University) entitled “Always Already Military: Police, Public Safety, and State Violence.” This talk is the keynote presentation for the Second Biennial Race in the Americas (RITA) Conference to be held November 3-4 at University Park. This presentation is open to the public. Friday, November 3, 102 Oak Building @ 12:00 pm. To find more information about RITA and the upcoming conference: visit the following link : sites.psu.edu/ritaconference.

The film "Blaxploitalian: 100 Years of Blackness in Italian Cinema” by Fred Kuwornu will be screened and there will be a discussion with the director. His visit will be Feb. 12, times yet to be determined.

Please join us for our third professional development opportunity of the semester: a SafeZone 101/102 Fusion Training.

The workshop will be held on October 6, in227 Burrowes, from 2-5 p.m. and will be taught by Sonya Wilmoth, Assistant Director of the LGBTQA Student Resource Center.

Safe Zone 101 provides a foundation of knowledge needed to be an effective ally to LGBTQA+ students. Safe Zone participants will be given the tools and resources should an LGBTQA+ student approach them to talk about LGBTQA+ related issues, or to help them find campus or local resources.

The Safe Zone 102 program further educates participants on the LGBTQA+ community, acting as an extension of the Safe Zone 101 program. Participants will move from theory to practice through becoming more confident and empowered, learning how to self-educate, sharing their own experiences to the group, and participating in role-playing exercises.

Congratulations to Rosa Guzzardo Tamargo, former graduate from Spanish linguistics at Penn State, who has been promoted to associate professor with tenure at the Universidad de Puerto Rico (Rio Piedras). Her dossier received honors!

Congratulations Rosa! We are thrilled for you y te deseamos muchísimos años colmados de éxito.

Congratulations to Matthew Marr, who has received the Hispanex Program Grant from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. This grant will help him pursue his exciting research project on Spanish Cinema. Congratulations Matthew!

Cindy has been a postdoctoral fellow in Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese and the CLS for the last three years and will be starting her new position this fall. We wish her the best of luck as she moves on to this next stage in her career.

Congratulations to Grant M. Berry, recipient of a Doctoral Dissertation Research award (Grant #BCS1651061) from the National Science Foundation for "The long and short of linguistic variation: Dual mechanisms of cognitive control in processing phonological variation and the adoption of sound change".

Please join me in congratulating Michele Rossi, whose book Pedagogia e corte nel Rinascimento italiano ed europeo ("Pedagogy and Courtly Life in the Italian and European Renaissance") has just appeared.

This award is to recognize graduate students who have excelled in all aspects of their graduate program and it is intended to support her research in Santiago de Compostela, Spain this summer. Congratulations on this wonderful achievement, Anna!

Congratulations to Madeline Iffert (double Major in Industrial Engineering and Spanish) who won 3rd place in the Undergraduate Student Exhibition with her thesis titled Do cognates facilitate the processing of codeswitched sentences. Her thesis was directed by Prof. Giuli Dussias.

Congratulations to Adison Godfrey on winning a Fulbright award to teach English in Ecuador! She will spend nine months in country teaching and hopes to continue previous volunteer work there with a foundation that assists in the education of individuals with disabilities and the creation of educational programs and initiatives. Last summer, Adison taught English at La Universidad de Cuenca for five weeks and received her ESL Program Specialist Teaching Certificate. During this time, she also began studying Kichwa, an indigenous language of the Quechua family, and very much looks forward to continuing her language studies.

Nicoletta Ventresca and Jason Laine whose innovation and vision in creating the World Campus Basic Italian sequence has been recognized with the National University Technology Network Distance Education Innovation Award.

University Park, Pa. -- Speaking two or more languages makes minds more open to learning and more flexible, and a $5 million dollar grant over five years from the National Science Foundation's Partnerships in International Research and Education aims to translate the science of language learning for education and the classroom.

Now you can choose your courses based on your interests! The Spanish faculty are now designating the courses they offer within these four themes so that you can zoom in on the topics that interest you the most. Click on the picture of your choice below to see the courses that cover topics related to each theme.*

*Note: The course requirements for majors and minors have not changed. This new organization is simply meant to help you find the courses that interest you most!

Congratulations to Ana Cortejoso de Andres for being awarded 2nd place in the Arts & Humanities division at the Graduate Exhibition yesterday for her poster entitled "Born to be a Star: Representing the Writer as a Global Celebrity in Contemporary Hispanic Narrative"!!

Did you know that the programs offered by the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are on Facebook and Twitter? Follow us for information about events, courses and programs offered by the department and for fun cultural updates about the countries where these languages are spoken!

Congratulations to Josh Deckman and Fernando Fonseca for having each received a 'Latin American Studies Research and Travel Award' for their upcoming travel to Cuba! For more information on the Latin American Studies Program.

The Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese announces a new education abroad opportunity starting this summer in Ronda, Spain. For more information, visit the program website: http://sites.psu.edu/ronda/

Congratulations to Prof. John Lipski, who was inducted into Sigma Delta Pi's Order of Don Quijote.

The Order of Don Quijote is the highest honor conferred by Sigma Delta Pi (the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society) to two scholars worldwide for exceptional and meritorious service in the fields of Hispanic scholarship, the teaching of Spanish, and the promotion of good relations between English- and Spanish- speaking countries. For more information about Sigma Delta Pi and the honors it confers, visit their website.

The Department of Spanish, Italian, and Porguese is offering a 3-credit, 3-week Maymester course in Cuba. The first two weeks of the course will be taught in Cuba, and the third week online.

As part of this course, PSU Students and professor, Julia Cuervo Hewitt, will participate in the 125thcommemoration of the death of José Martí. For this event we will travel to the historic city of Bayamo, in the Eastern part of the island, during the weekend of May 16-18. Classes will take place Monday-Friday at the Centro de Estudios Martianos, in Havana, during the mornings, and during the afternoon the Centro will provide city tours to important historical and cultural sites. The last day of the two week-stay will be at the famous beach of Varadero.

There will be a meeting for students interested in registering for this course:

February 18, at 5:30 p.m.

Thomas Building 222

At this meeting we will be talking about the process of registration, the cost of the course, flight, and room and board in Cuba, as well as the process of obtaining the visa, which must be done at least 6-7 weeks in advance, as a group. Students interested must have a passport by the first week of March since we must send the names and passport numbers to Cuba that week so that the Centro de Estudios Martinos can apply for visas for the entire group.

Interested in studying Portuguese? Apply for a Foreign Language & Area Studies fellowship to study in Brazil on a summer or year-long program. Both undergraduates and graduate students are eligible. Review of applications will start February 15 but will continue until all funds are allocated.

The Summer Research Opportunities Program, a Committee on Institutional Cooperation Opportunity

The Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) is a gateway to graduate education at CIC universities. The goal of the program is to increase the number of underrepresented students who pursue graduate study and research careers. SROP helps prepare undergraduates for graduate study through intensive research experiences with faculty mentors and enrichment activities. By participating in SROP, you will gain valuable research experience on a CIC campus and enhance your qualifications for admission to graduate school:

Study in your field of choice

All-expenses paid plus stipend

Housing and transportation included

Top faculty-mentored research experience

Enrichment workshops and opportunities

Participation in academic research conference

Get more information and complete program details on our website: www.cic.net/srop

It is with great pleasure that we announce Grant Berry's forthcoming article in Probus titled "Structural autonomy and aspectual import: A new(er) Spanish Progressive". Congratulations, Grant!

Abstract:

The current study analyzes distributional frequencies of the Spanish Progressive construction (ESTAR+Gerund) in a corpus of late twentieth century conversational speech in order to assess changes in structure and meaning. The analysis incorporates structural priming as a measure of analyzability and autonomy, and utilizes both lexical and contextual measures of aspect to assess the construction's preferred environment relative to its competing gram: the simple Present. Results of a multivariate analysis (N=1017) indicate that over the last one hundred years, the construction has lost analyzability, further coalescing into a single grammatical unit. This new unit has also acquired the ability to express limited duration (progressive, continuous) aspect with stative as well as dynamic verbs, indicating the consolidation of the construction's aspectual import. At the same time, its presence in extended duration contexts is attributed to strong effects of Progressive-Progressive priming and, to a lesser extent, licensing by a co-occurring temporal adverbial. By situating these results within the construction's diachrony, it is concluded that the increased grammaticalization of the Spanish Progressive in the twentieth century, as assessed quantitatively, is markedly distinct from previous centuries.

Edited by Rena Torres Cacoullos, Nathalie Dion, André Lapierre, Linguistic Variation: Confronting Fact and Theory honors Shana Poplack in bringing together contributions from leading scholars in language variation and change. The book demonstrates how variationist methodology can be applied to the study of linguistic structures and processes. It introduces readers to variation theory, while also providing an overview of current debates on the linguistic, cognitive and sociocultural factors involved in linguistic patterning. With its coverage of a diverse range of language varieties and linguistic problems, this book offers new quantitative analyses of actual language production and processing from both top experts and emerging scholars, and presents students and practitioners with theoretical frameworks to meaningfully engage in accountable research practice.

It is with great pleasure that we announce Pablo Requena's forthcoming article, in collaboration with Astrid Román-Hernandez and Prof. Karen Miller titled "Children’s knowledge of the Spanish copulas Ser and Estar with novel adjectives." Congratulations, Pablo!

The Professional Development Committee in the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese is pleased to announce the establishment of the STEP (Summer Teaching Enrichment Program) Grant. This grant is intended to help defray the cost of summer programs of study directly related to instruction, travel expenses and accommodations. Grants of up to $1,000 will be awarded annually based on the merits of the proposals submitted. Deadline: January 31, 2015. The committee is now accepting proposals.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- U.S. News & World Report released its 2015 "Best Colleges" rankings today (Sept. 9), with Penn State ranking No. 14 among national public universities.

In addition, the University ranked No. 2 nationally among "Best Colleges for Veterans," schools that participate in federal initiatives helping veterans and active service members apply, pay for and complete their degrees.

In the "National Universities" category, which includes both public and private institutions, Penn State placed No. 48 overall. According to U.S. News' methodology, schools in this category emphasize faculty research and offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and doctoral programs.

In the Big Ten, Penn State ranked No. 4 among public nationals, and No. 5 in the overall nationals. Penn State also ranked No. 4 among Pennsylvania universities.

The Smeal College of Business' supply chain management program ranked No. 5 in "Best in the Specialties," with Smeal ranked No. 21 overall in "Best in Undergraduate Business" programs, up one spot from last year. Additional business programs ranked include production/operations management (No. 14), management (No. 14), marketing (No. 14) and accounting (No. 22).

At Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, the School of Engineering ranked No. 47 among the best engineering schools whose highest degree is a bachelor's or master's.

Penn State also ranked highest among national universities on the list of "A-Plus Schools for B Students," featuring schools that accept students without straight A’s but rank highly among the 2015 Best Colleges.

In addition, Penn State ranked 45th in a nationwide survey among high school counselors who rated national universities and liberal arts colleges that they felt offered “the best undergraduate education to their students,” receiving a score of 4.1 out of a possible 5.

U.S. News & World Report surveys nearly 1,800 colleges and universities annually and ranks them in different categories by measuring such factors as graduation and retention rates; assessment by peers and counselors; faculty resources; student selectivity; alumni giving rate; and financial resources. Details of the "2015 Best Colleges" methodology and rankings are available at http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges online.

CWUR describes itself as “the only global university ranking that measures the quality of education and training of students as well as the prestige of the faculty members and the quality of their research without relying on surveys and university data submissions.” It released its annual list on Tuesday (July 15), including eight U.S. Ivy League and other private schools and two British universities in the top 10.

In the United States, 229 institutions were honored among the world’s top 1,000 universities. Eight Big Ten universities placed in the top 50, along with the University of Pennsylvania, the only other school in the commonwealth to achieve the top 5 percent, at No. 14. The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University are No. 53 and No. 54, respectively.

The Center for World University Rankings’ methodology, as listed on its website, uses seven indicators to produce its rankings: quality of faculty, publications in top journals, highly influential research, citations, patents, academic training of students and professional future of alumni. Its aim is “to measure the quality of education and training of students as well as the prestige of the faculty and the quality of their research.”

The complete list and detailed methodology can be found at http://cwur.org.

Congratulations to our undergraduate students Melinda Dennis, Daniel Magerman and Mary Beth Spang, who were the recipients of NSF PIRE grants awarded through the Center of Language Science to travel to San Basilio de Palenque (Colombia) to conduct research on Palenquero.

Congratulations to Tomás Hidalgo Nava, Adriana Linnebur, Rosa Osborn, Lauren Perrotti, Romà Rofes Herrera, Borja Gutiérrez and Emily Wiggins, who received certificates of recognition for their outstanding work in the classroom

Graduate students with research and educational interests in Hispanic Linguistics and Language Science may apply to the dual-title doctoral program in Spanish and Language Science. The dual-title program enables graduate students from Spanish to acquire the knowledge and research skills of their major area of specialization in Hispanic Linguistics while at the same time gaining the perspective and methods of the language sciences. For further information click here.

A Heart of Gold Lives On

In September, 1997, Erik D. Steindl, certified personal fitness trainer at Restek, a senior at The Pennsylvania State University (PSU), a Staff Sergeant in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, and son of Eric Steindl (also an employee of Restek), was diagnosed with a germ-cell cancer. The initial prognosis was excellent.

At the time of diagnosis, the softball-sized tumor had already invaded Erik's left bronchial tube, restricting air and blood flow to his left lung. It also was believed to be dangerously close to his heart. Surgery at this point was not an option. The doctors moved quickly to begin a very aggressive chemotherapy treatment, which they hoped would shrink the size of the tumor and restore blood and air flow to Erik's left lung. Then they would remove the remaining cancerous tissue by surgery. While Erik's family and friends struggled to accept that a strong, otherwise healthy 24-year-old could have developed such a serious medical condition, Erik continued with his studies at PSU and planned for his future.

Initial chemotherapy treatments appeared to have a positive effect, and although chemotherapy would exhaust Erik, he never lost sight of his dreams or forgot his family and friends. He continued to write, phone, and visit people whenever possible. Too sick and tired to drive himself, his family would take him to visit his friends. Erik would always say "I need to walk in and show people I'm OK so they don't worry so much." At Restek, Erik would walk throughout the entire facility, talking to people about his hopes and plans for the future. To many, he would say "I'm going to beat this cancer and write a book about it."

In October and November, Erik's condition became more complicated. His heart rate would suddenly and dangerously increase, requiring him to be flown by Life Flight helicopter to Hershey Medical Center, PA. He developed severe headaches, and it was discovered that blood clots had formed in several major veins in his brain. While in the hospital, family and friends from across the country came to visit. Each time a person entered Erik's hospital room, Erik would sit up, try to relieve the visitor's worry, and entertain them as if nothing was wrong. Despite his declining health, Erik maintained contact with friends at Restek and PSU. In December, Erik's younger brother Greg graduated from PSU. Too sick to attend the graduation ceremony, Erik stayed at home with several friends, talking and planning for 1998.

After four chemotherapy treatments and numerous tests, Erik's doctors felt the cancer was finally operable. During surgery, the doctors found the cancer had spread into the heart tissue itself, part of the left lung, and the chest wall. The night after surgery, Erik suffered a stroke from the blood clots in his brain. Gravely ill and unable to speak because of the ventilator, Erik was still fighting and writing notes to ask if his family and friends were alright. On February 14, Valentines Day, this young man who touched so many hearts, lost his fight against cancer.

On June 19, on what would have been Erik's 25 birthday, a memorial ceremony was held at Restek. Over 100 family members and friends attended from across the country. Erik's parents and brother were presented with several awards for Erik. Restek presented its highest honor posthumously, "The President's Award," to Erik for his courage and strength, which was an example to us all. Also, Restek dedicated an outdoor memorial and renamed the fitness center "Corazon de Oro," meaning "Heart of Gold" in Spanish, a language Erik had studied for many years in the Air Force and at PSU.

PSU presented Erik's posthumous diploma, awarded because of Erik's fight to continue with his studies in spite of his illness. The Pennsylvania Air National Guard, 112th Air Control Squadron, by order of the President of the United States, awarded Erik the "Air Force Meritorious Service Award." This is the highest award given by the Air Force to a non-combatant servicemen. The members of the squadron also presented Erik's family with a shadow box containing all the awards, rank insignia, and unit emblems Erik had earned during his military service.

To ensure Erik's dedication and spirit lives on, a memorial scholarship fund has been established at Penn State University. This scholarship, the "Erik D. Steindl Spanish Scholarship Fund" is awarded to a student in the Spanish Department who demonstrates outstanding academic excellence and community spirit. If you would like to make a contribution to this fund, please send your tax-deductible donation to: